01624232

Component

The continued growth of aviation activity will require further growth in airport capacity. In the UK, Heathrow Airport is operating at capacity yet further expansion is currently constrained by concerns over local air quality impacts. The objective of this study is to compare emissions indices (EIs) of NOₓ and CO measured using a high-density network of low-cost sensors deployed at Heathrow to modelled values derived from high-resolution flight data records for six different aircraft types. Aircraft runway activities have a considerable impact on measured pollutant concentrations; on days when the 09R runway is active, the diurnal pattern at the downstream sensor node clearly indicated influence from aircraft activities, with the mean NOₓ, NO₂, NO, CO and CO₂ concentrations increased by 144%, 21%, 300%, 88% and 7% compared to times when the runway was not active. On average for four of the aircraft types, modelled EI(NOX) values were between 51% to 111% higher than measured values. In contrast, for the two B747 aircraft variants, modelled EI(NOₓ) were 5% to 8% lower than measured values. Measured EIs are found to be dependent on aircraft thrust setting, however, for a given aircraft thrust setting considerable variability in measured EI(NOₓ) and EI(CO) is observed. This is the first study to combine measured EI values with flight data records and highlights potential uncertainty in aircraft emissions.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AV030 Standing Committee on Environmental Impacts of Aviation.

01618707

17-03561

English

16p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Photos; References

Aircraft; Airport capacity; Airport runways; Engines; Measurement; Pollutants; Sensors

Heathrow Airport

Aviation; Environment; Vehicles and Equipment

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-03561

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 11:21AM